>Times and the Sept. 19 Washington Post describe the >suitcases of money handed over at the border. Advisers, >pollsters, TV, radio and newspapers are all paid for by the >U.S. government. > >And this sum omits whatever the Soros Foundation or Germany >and other West European powers pumped in. > >Despite all this foreign funding, the opposition candidate >Vojislav Kostunica claims that he is an independent who >would refuse to turn over any government official to the >Hague Tribunal. He promises Serbia will remain intact. > >Kostunica counts on the U.S. and European Union's promises >to lift sanctions if Milosevic is no longer president. He >seems to have forgotten that the U.S. also promised >Milosevic that if he signed the 1995 Dayton Accords on >Bosnia, the sanctions would be lifted. Milosevic signed. The >sanctions remained. > >WASHINGTON CLARIFIES ITS GOAL: COUNTER-REVOLUTION > >A new bill before Congress makes Washington's aims in this >election clear. HR 1064, called the Serbian Democratization >Act of 2000, stipulates that sanctions will remain in place >until Yugoslavia agrees to "cooperate fully with The Hague >and hand over anyone charged." A new government must agree >to detach Kosovo, grant "autonomy to Vojvodina"--the region >in the north of Serbia--and "give up any claim to previously >owned property of the Yugoslav Federation, including its >missions, offices and consulates." > >U.S. intervention is hardly limited to funding the >opposition and planning for its administration after the >election. Part of Yugoslavia--Kosovo--is under military >occupation by the very forces funding the opposition. The >Pentagon held joint military maneuvers with Croatia--whose >government is hostile to Yugoslavia--and a landing invasion >exercise on an island off shore in the Adriatic Sea during >the Sept. 24 elections. > >Washington's goals go far beyond gross interference in an >election campaign against one man, Milosevic. That's why the >U.S. strategists wanted Kostunica to refuse to participate >in the runoff election. They are not satisfied with an >orderly transfer of some government positions if Milosevic's >Socialist Party-led coalition would still command the >Yugoslavia Parliament, whose control it retained in the >Sept. 24 election. > >Strikes and shutdowns organized by the opposition show that >Washington's real aim is fomenting a civil war and the >violent overthrow of the whole government apparatus, >replacing it with a weak government completely compliant to >U.S. demands. The U.S. especially wants to destroy the >Yugoslav Army, which has its roots in the socialist >revolution of 1945. > >KOSTUNICA AND G17 > >Why are all the imperialist forces throwing such enormous >support to Kostunica? > >Kostunica is backed by a coalition of 18 parties called the >Democratic Opposition of Serbia. DOS embraces the >reconstruction plan of a group of Yugoslav economists called >the Group of 17-Plus. The mission statement of the G17 >openly brags that many of the groups' economists work for >the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. > >For anyone who holds illusions that the NATO countries--the >imperialists--might actually be supporting a "democratic >alternative," it would help to review the economic plan of >the G17 to understand the enthusiasm of U.S. and West >European banks and corporations for Kostunica. > >Michel Chossudovsky is a professor of economics at the >University of Ottawa and the author of a well-known book on >IMF policies, "The Globalization of Poverty." Chossudovsky >showed that the G17 is funded by the Washington-based >"Center for International Private Enterprise" which is an >affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In an article co- >authored by Jared Israel and available on www.tenc.net, and >developed in depth in the book "NATO in the Balkans," >Chossudofsky shows the role of the IMF in dismantling >Yugoslavia. > >This whole apparatus is directly funded by the National >Endowment for Democracy, which the U.S. Congress created in >order to finance operations that the Central Intelligence >Agency used to fund clandestinely. This is not speculation. >Allen Weinstein, who planned the NED, said, "A lot of what >we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA." > >The G17 is wholly committed to capitalism, free markets and >the dismantling of the public sector. They are committed to >doing away with programs that subsidize food, rent or >transportation, along with free medical care. World Bank and >IMF policies in country after country force businesses, both >public and private, into bankruptcy. Then foreign >corporations buy them out at rock bottom prices. A dependent >colonial economy is the result. > >IMF EXPERIMENT LED TO BREAKUP > >Yugoslavia went through a wrenching experiment with IMF >privatization in 1989. Professor Veselin Vukotic, now elder >statesman of the G17, was then the minister of privatization >under Yugoslav Premier Ante Markovic. > >Vukotic worked on a World Bank plan to privatize Yugoslav >industry. Yugoslav companies were selected for bankruptcy or >liquidation. This plan orchestrated the breakup of 50 >percent of Yugoslav industry, wiping out 1,100 industrial >firms. Over 614,000 industrial workers were laid off, out of >2.7 million. Industrial output shrank by 21 percent. > >As social programs were unraveling, unemployment >skyrocketing and wages plunging, Yugoslavia as a federation >began to unravel. There were strikes and worker actions. But >the economic chaos also gave rise to separatist tendencies >among the six republics that made up the Socialist >Federation of Yugoslavia. > >In the 1991 elections Serbia and Montenegro tried to reject >these disastrous economic policies. The regimes in other >republics cast their lots with the plans of the Western >bankers. > >In January 1991 U.S. Foreign Appropriations legislation >ordered a cutoff in trade, loans or aid to any republic that >held elections that the State Department did not approve. >The Foreign Appropriations bill each year legislates all >manner of strangulation against the economy of any country >not moving fast enough toward a capitalist market economy. >For attempting some resistance to the plans of the World >Bank, Serbia was targeted. > >In the years of economic strangulation caused by the >sanctions that the West imposed on the two remaining >republics of Yugoslavia, many of these economic plans have >been reversed, increasing public ownership. The G17 promises >that Kostunica's election would mean Yugoslavia would >quickly adapt "free market" policies and privatize the >entire economy. > >THE MINERS' STRIKE > >Reports in the Western media on the Kolubara miners' strike >indicate that the government has lost at least some of the >support it once had in the working class, and that workers >are dissatisfied with the decline in their living standards. > >No one sympathetic to the workers' struggle can be pleased >that police have to be sent in against workers. The world >should remember, however, what happened to the Polish >shipyard workers in Gdansk who led the struggle against the >Polish government. The new neo-liberal regime shut the >shipyard as it was no longer profitable on the world market, >and all the workers lost their jobs. Miners in Russia and >Romania faced the same IMF shutdowns. > >It would be foolish to believe that the U.S. government, >which has suppressed democracy and overthrown legally >elected popular governments from Guate mala to Iran to >Greece to Chile to Grenada to Haiti, is interested in >democratic process in Yugoslavia. What it wants is to impose >savage capitalism on Serbia and Montenegro. > >Kostunica claims Yugoslavia under his administration will >become a "normal Western government." But what does that >mean when there are only two kinds of status for countries >in Europe today? > >Yugoslavia can't join the imperialist powers like Germany, >France or even Austria, which held colonial empires and >whose economies today have a global reach. Its only choice >is to share the fate of Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and >Ukraine. > >The economy and the standard of living in these countries is >worse than it is in Yugoslavia, even after 78 days of NATO >bombing and eight years of international sanctions. The >people in these countries are the victims of 10 years of >economic restructuring. Colonial subjugation and the >dismantling of industry have been imposed on them. And >that's the choice Kostunica and his U.S. tutors offer >Yugoslavia. > >WHAT TO DO > >The International Action Center has issued a call directed >to those in the United States who want to show solidarity >with Yugoslavia and its struggle to resist counter- >revolution and a U.S./NATO takeover. > >In response to the U.S. and Western Europe's blatant use of >funds to influence the Yugoslav election, the IAC and its >founder, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, have >called for a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the full >extent of U.S. intervention in the Yugoslav elections. It is >seeking evidence of this intervention and hopes to expose it >as a crime, just as it did with the war crimes the U.S. and >other NATO forces committed against Yugoslavia in 1999. > >Interested readers can contact the IAC at (212) 633-6646 or >e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] Information is also available >on the Web site www.iacenter.org. > >- END - > >(Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to >copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but >changing it is not allowed. For more information contact >Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) > > > > >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2000 23:27:44 -0400 >Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII >Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT >Subject: [WW] Mongolia and Yugoslavia >Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >------------------------- >Via Workers World News Service >Reprinted from the Oct. 12, 2000 >issue of Workers World newspaper >------------------------- > >EDITORIAL: MONGOLIA AND YUGOSLAVIA > >Can "free elections" be the mechanism by which a counter- >revolutionary group climbs into the saddle in a socialist >country? Or, put another way, can something that in form >appears to be an expression of majority will in fact be used >by a property-hungry minority to grab a nation's wealth and >destroy the social guarantees of the majority? > >This question is being posed sharply today in Yugoslavia. >But it was answered four years ago in Mongolia, when the >Democratic Union Coalition swept into office, handing the >Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party its first defeat >since the revolution of 1924. > >That election victory was the brainchild of Newt Gingrich, >the International Republican Institute, and other U.S. free- >marketeers. > >These reactionaries had jetted into the central Asian >country after it suffered the loss of its major economic >partner, the Soviet Union. Their "Contract With Mongolia"-- >sound familiar?--laid out promises of a rosy future if only >the Mongolian people would elect reformers who would discard >social ownership and central planning and let the market do >its magic. > >Mongolia is a land of vast plains with only 2.5 million >people, many of whom live as nomads tending herds of goats >and sheep. In 1924 it became the second country in the world >to carry out a socialist revolution. Its first achievement >was to vanquish hunger and illiteracy. It achieved a life >expectancy of nearly 70 and had a unique and vibrant >culture. > >But it did not have the wealth to support a luxurious life >style for those who in the 1990s were to fall under the >spell of the International Republican Institute. These would- >be entrepreneurs scrambled over one another to make deals >with the rich foreigners, who helped them organize >politically. > >Once they took office in 1996, politicians from the >Democratic Coalition, whose salaries were only $80 a month, >were soon driving $50,000 cars. U.S. advisers helped >Mongolians set up a stock market so a few could get rich off >the labor of the many. Big oil companies began serious >prospecting in the Gobi Desert, and Fifth Avenue stores saw >a gold mine in Mongolia's cashmere. > >Even after Mongolia's entry into the World Trade >Organization in 1997 and the opening up of its markets led >to the collapse of its domestic cashmere-processing >industry, the band of free-marketeers continued on their >merry way. > >By the winter of 1999-2000, the country was in the deepest >crisis it had known since the revolution. Fully 40 percent >of the population lived below the poverty line, according to >the UN Development Program. Guaranteed employment was no >more--one of every five people was without a job. The health >and educational structures had fallen apart. Overgrazing was >destroying the pastureland. Without jobs and economic >security, families disintegrated. > >Hundreds of impoverished children moved into the sewers of >the capital, Ulan Bator, coming up to beg during the day and >returning to their hellish "homes" at night. > >This social disaster that followed Mongolia's political >counter-revolution turned the population decisively against >the reformers. This July 2, in an election for the Great >Hural, or parliament, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary >Party routed the Democratic Coalition, winning 72 out of 76 >seats. > >Then on Oct. 1, the people voted for the provincial and Ulan >Bator municipal governments. Again, the capitalist reformers >were pulverized as the MPRP won 552 of the 695 seats up for >reelection. > >But does this mean that a system of social justice will now >return to Mongolia? Can the MPRP, which has won a political >victory, now wage a class struggle against the new >capitalists at home and their imperialist handlers abroad? >That's what is necessary if the social wealth they >appropriated is to belong collectively to the people again. >It was this social property that was the basis for all that >the Mongolian people achieved in the past. > >There is no question about what the Mongolian people want. >They have tasted the bitter poison of neocolonial capitalism >and rejected it unambiguously. They want free and universal >health care, education and the right to a job--things they >probably thought could never be taken away, but have now >learned otherwise. > >What is undone through the mechanism of elections cannot >easily be put back together again, even when the mood of the >electorate has changed radically. This is especially true of >Yugoslavia, which is now ringed with imperialist troops and >bases. It is seen by the strategists of Wall Street and the >Pentagon as vital to their thrust to the East, their attempt >to dominate and exploit all the lands of eastern Europe and >central Asia. > >They are pushing feverishly to finish the counter- >revolution, and their threats against President Slobodan >Milosevic become more violent each day. They may well want a >bloody confrontation, like the assault that Washington >puppet Boris Yeltsin carried out against Russia's parliament >in 1993, to break the will of those holding out against >imperialism. > >All who are for socialism need to stand with Yugoslavia >today against NATO and the internal counter-revolution. An >overturn of the state would bring neither democracy nor >peace nor prosperity. It would only bring starving children >and the sell-off of all that the Yugoslav workers have >built. > >- END - > >(Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to >copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but >changing it is not allowed. For more information contact >Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) > > > > >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2000 23:36:24 -0400 >Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII >Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT >Subject: [WW] "Abortion Pill": Victory but not Cure-All >Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >------------------------- >Via Workers World News Service >Reprinted from the Oct. 12, 2000 >issue of Workers World newspaper >------------------------- > >THE "ABORTION PILL": A VICTORY BUT NOT CURE-ALL > >By Ellen Catalinotto >Certified Nurse-Midwife >New York > >On Sept. 28 the Food and Drug Administration approved the >marketing of RU486, the "abortion pill" sought for many >years by advocates of women's reproductive rights. Since >these abortion-inducing pills could be dispensed from any >doctors' offices, this could help end the isolation of >abortion clinics, which have become targets of right-wing >attacks by anti-abortion forces. > >Those who are pro-choice welcome this drug's legalization, >which expands the options and enhances the privacy of women >seeking to end an unwanted pregnancy. But they should be >aware that it will be no magic cure-all for those wanting to >guarantee the right of women to reproductive freedom. > >There are many battles ahead to make RU486 legally available >and financially accessible to those who want it. But it may >not be the appropriate way to terminate unwanted pregnancy >in all women. And there will still be a struggle to make >sure surgical abortions remain legal and that there are >enough providers trained in and practicing these abortions. > >Mifepristone, which was named RU486 by the French company >that developed it in 1980, has been used in over half a >million abortions in Europe for over a decade. Its safety >and effectiveness have been demonstrated. > >Approval for its use in the United States has been delayed >for many years because of right-wing threats of boycotts and >protests--and the implied threat of violence--against the >manufacturer, Roussel Ucalf. > >To avoid becoming a target of protests or boycotts in the >U.S. that might cut its sales of other medicines, the French >drug maker donated its patent on mifepristone to the >Population Council, a non-profit U.S. group. This group >established a company to distribute the medication in this >country. > >HOW DOES RU486 WORK? > >Mifepristone works by blocking progesterone, the hormone >made by a woman's body to maintain a pregnancy. After a >medical examination to determine that she is less than seven >weeks pregnant, the woman would take the pills. Then, after >waiting 36 to 48 hours, she must take another medicine >called misoprostol. This second drug brings on contractions >of the uterus that expel the fetal tissue and end the >pregnancy. > >The benefits of this procedure are that it can be done very >early in pregnancy, it avoids the invasiveness of a surgical >abortion, and it does not require anesthesia. > >AN OPTION, NOT A PANACEA > >Those who support the right to choose should be aware that >this type of medical abortion is not the answer to every >woman's needs. The pills must be taken within seven weeks of >the last menstrual period--in other words, before a woman >has even missed her second period. > >Menstrual periods usually occur every month in reproductive- >age women, but do not happen like clockwork for everyone. > >Women whose periods are normally irregular, including many >teenagers, and women who are breastfeeding or using >medications that make their periods stop or become irregular >may not realize they are pregnant soon enough to use RU486. >Others who are unsure whether or not to end the pregnancy >may be unable to come to a decision within that time frame. > >The procedure also involves multiple medical visits. The >pregnancy must first be confirmed. Accurate dating is >obtained by a pelvic exam to check the size of the uterus. >An ultrasound may be required, adding to the expense. Only >then is the RU486 prescribed and taken. > >The second medication, misoprostol, is administered at a >second visit two days later. A third, follow-up visit is >needed two weeks later to make certain that the pregnancy >has been successfully terminated. This is necessary since in >about 5 percent of cases RU486 will not work and surgical >abortion will be needed afterwards. > >All this may make medical abortion through RU486 and >misoprostol too complicated and costly for many women, >including the millions without insurance. > >In France, where medical abortion has been available for >many years and the costs are insured for everyone, only >about one third of the women seeking to end a pregnancy >choose this method. > >WOMEN STILL NEED FULL RANGE OF OPTIONS > >While early termination of an unwanted pregnancy by medical >means is a welcome option, approval for RU486 will obviously >not mean the end of surgical abortions. Advocates of women's >reproductive rights must continue to work for the >availability of surgical abortion. > >Already, anti-choice zealots are working to place the same >punitive restrictions on prescribing abortion pills as exist >to curtail surgical services. In some states, abortion >providers must register and report every abortion. Detailed >requirements for the design of facilities where abortions >are provided may also prevent the prescribing of RU486 by >physicians who do not already provide surgical abortions. > >Insurance and malpractice issues may pose further barriers >to "mainstreaming" RU486. For example, several weeks ago, >Searle, the manufacturer of misoprostol (the drug used after >RU486 has been taken), mailed letters to health-care >providers around the country warning that it is not approved >for use in pregnancy. Obstetricians have used this >medication to induce, or bring on, labor leading to >childbirth in term pregnancies. > >Advances in technology are welcome, but no pill, no election >of a single candidate, no law alone can safeguard the right >to choose. Constant vigilance and struggle on the part of >all who support women's rights must continue. > >- END - > >(Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to >copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but >changing it is not allowed. For more information contact >Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) > > > > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. 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